I hadn’t read a quality, eerie thriller in a while and was surprised to find one on my hands with Lupton’s third novel.
Set in Alaska, The Quality of Silence unfolds in a manner perfectly matched to the landscape in which it is set. A small cast of characters, an environmental conflict, murder, solitude, an ice road and an invisible threat moving ever closer :::::shiver!:::::
Yasmin heads to Alaska in an attempt to reconcile with her husband, a wildlife videographer who is filming on location. Travelling with their deaf daughter Ruby, upon her arrival in Alaska, Yasmin discovers that authorities presume her husband Matt to have perished in a catastrophic fire that decimated an entire village.
Convinced her husband is alive, Yasmin and Ruby begin the journey north, into the centre of a snow storm and into the desolate silence of the arctic circle.
So, there are a couple of farfetched premises that I had to ‘get over’ so I could get on with enjoying this book, because I really did enjoy it. The first being that a mother would take a child on a mission so desperate that she would hitch a ride into the unknown, potentially most lethal natural environment in the world……….with a truck driver. Moving on, I then had to accept that when she had to, Yasmin was totally able to drive a massive truck carrying a small building, across the lethal ice roads in Alaska. This was a tough one as I’ve watched many episodes of Ice Road Truckers, and these shows have led me to believe that it’s a pretty dodgy exercise – even if you KNOW what you’re doing!
Aside from these niggly issues, The Quality of Silence quickly became a book that I couldn’t put down. The fear of being pursued through no-mans land is translated scarily well by Lupton plus the terror of having your child with you through it all adds layer upon layer of fear.
This is a great read, and though set in the snow lol, definitely one to add to your Christmas wish list for lazy summer days!
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